One of the joys of volunteering at our local Oxfam bookshop is that you never know what treasures you are going to find. When Sari and I cleared out my parents’ flat, we boxed up all the books and took them to the local charity shop, including two huge volumes of the Oxford English Dictionary (A - L and M - Z). We had no idea that these things simply don’t sell anymore.
I have learned such a lot since being at Oxfam. We always have some Delia cookbooks for example. Is there anyone in the country who doesn’t own one? And after Gary Rhodes sadly died, we put volumes of his books on display (on display means you can see the cover facing you as opposed to reading through the spines on a bookshelf). During the Great British Banger week, I stuck a sausage-making book up on display, and a couple came in and told me they’d just bought a sausage making machine, so I persuaded them the book was what they needed. We also sell music and DVDs, and you’d be amazed how many people are buying vinyl again.
I remember one Saturday afternoon earlier this year, a woman came in with a couple of large boxes full of books, and as it was fairly quiet that afternoon on the till, I sorted through them. Across the top of the first box were a few paperbacks in poor condition, which we could not sell on. But once I removed those, what a treasure trove! Both boxes were full of original Ladybird books, some in excellent condition. It was a real trip down memory lane, as I discovered them. Of course, such books are collectibles, and it is up to our shop expert to look at the condition and price it for sale. But it was such a joy to unpack them.
Last year, as we were moving into the first National Lockdown (clearing the shop, doing a stock-take of Oxfam products such as greetings cards, donating unsold Easter eggs to the foodbank etc), and we had a few final donations before we closed up. One was 'The Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle', which I procured; if you ever read it, set up a timeline of all characters on Excel, as you’ll need it). I also snaffled Rick Stein’s “Spain”. I can hear you breathe a sigh of relief, that I’ve finally got to the title of the blog. [Ed, <sigh>]
I must add that in no way do any volunteers get Oxfam books at reduced prices, it’s just that sometimes we are in the right place at the right time. Someone else (usually the store manager) has to agree the price and it gets recorded in a book of staff purchases.
We came down to Aubeterre last year, and I tucked Rick into the car, but never really got the chance to look at it for various reasons. To be honest, I’d forgotten I’d bought it. What a pleasure it was, therefore, to find it on the bookshelf last week. The book is full of lovely seafood recipes for us to try, and it reminds us of our Mediterranean diet on Missy Bear. Last week, we cooked gurnard fillets in hot garlic oil, as we couldn’t get hake, and they were delicious. On Friday night, we had clams with garlic and nut picada.
Forgive me if you are a Spanish chef aficionado, but for those of us who aren’t, a picada is when “nuts, such as almonds, hazelnuts or pine nuts and bread or fried bread, garlic, olive oil and sometimes herbs are pounded together in a mortar and stirred into a dish at the end to thicken the sauce and flavour it” [ Rick Stein]. In the body of the recipe however, he says to bundle the ingredients into a mini food processor, which is much easier than a pestle and mortar.
Tonight’s meal will include a tomato and rocket salad to start. We bought the rocket at the local farmers’ stalls at Riberac market. It’s sharp and peppery, and I plan to make a rocket pesto with it. It’s actually a little short-sighted on my part, as we have a squid and pork meatballs recipe from the Awesome Stein to follow, using a picada, which is really what pesto is when you think about it, although with no fried bread.
His Awesomeness gets everywhere. Some weeks ago, I had an email from a former colleague who is sailing in the Med. I told him that we had visited Port Vendre with Missy Bear, and he replied saying they had sailed there too, and eaten at a fabulous fish restaurant that had featured in a Rick Stein programme. He said that he and his wife were trying to eat anywhere he had recommended.
And then yesterday, I had a WhatsApp from a friend who is in Lisbon, asking for any recommendations for seafood restaurants. We have suggested the Ponto Finale, which you can get to by crossing the Tagus River by a regular foot ferry. We went there for a lovely lunch a few years back. And yes, you guessed it – it was a recommendation from Rick Stein’s Long Weekends.
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PS: Update on the squid and meatballs recipe:
I was able to get most of the ingredients at one of our markets, and got the pork mince at our local butcher. However, the recipe also called for 100gr of fresh or frozen peas. Well, it’s definitely not the season for fresh peas, so I popped into our local village shop, which is very well stocked and exceedingly useful. They did have frozen peas, but in bags of 1kg, which I would never use up while we are out here. Different at home, when you can pop the remainder in the freezer as a store cupboard item. Here, it would just sit it our freezer compartment getting iced up.
Then I had a brainwave: the peas were there to add texture and colour really. And the French are very fond of tinned vegetables, especially tinned peas. So, I bought a little three pack of tinned peas. That evening, I opened the tin, only to discover that I hadn’t really read the label properly, and I had instead bought peas and carrots! Although it looked absurd, it did taste wonderful, if I say so myself.